💥Download Enlisted for FREE and get your bonus! ► Use my link - playen.link/arch #ad Tarkov obviously had to update their recoil when I finished the video... & sorry for the delay on the video. It got corrupted while rendering and I lost a bunch of footage
SWAT4 had a damage system where if your arms get damaged your aim is affected, and often you end up switching to a pistol when your arm gets hit because you just can't aim with your primary.
I wasn't watching the video, just listening at the time, and by the time I realized that it was the ad, he said thank you to the sponsor and continued on
This is where VR really shines through, trying to aim and move with a rifle is much more cumbersome and difficult than a pistol, especially in games like Pavlov I find myself favouring pistols over larger firearms like shotguns and rifles
You could simulate it in M&K games with a lot of bloom if you have to move your weapon very quickly and more than like, 45 degrees(or disconnect your aim point from where the gun is pointing), but I feel like a lot of people would complain. The only type of game I've seen that controls how quickly a heavy weapon can turn are in tank/mech combat, where the limitations of the turret drive speed basically stop large cannons and heavily armored turrets from spinning on a dime, while smaller tanks and their lighter guns can generally get around faster, and also spin their turret faster too.
@Appletank8 escape from tarkov has a mechanic called "ergonomics" in the game, basically a numeric value given to a gun which indicates how easy it is to handle. A gun with low ergonomics will sway in your hands more when aiming, it lags behind slightly when moving point of aim quickly, takes slightly longer to do things like reload or aim down sights etc. Pistols tend to have much higher ergonomic values than rifles or other large weapons, giving it a slight advantage in how quickly you can react to seeing someone and flick to their head. Guns can also be customized to improve their ergonomics and that does allow some rifles to have as high ergo as pistols tho so it's not a perfect system as it is right now.
@justcallmenoah5743 this is also how Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead and Metal Gear Solid (3-V) handle the difference between larger and smaller guns; while Cataclysm represents an "aiming speed" in time units (being a turn based RPG rather than an FPS) it tends to make the somewhat weaker pistols a very good choice in a tight space - they're quiet, small, light, and you can draw and aim quickly when encountering an unexpected monster. Metal Gear Solid actually reduces your aiming/turning speed with heavier weapons in 4 onward, and still does so in first person in MGS2 and 3; further, while you can still use your handgun while holding a human shield or carrying someone in MGS, you cannot use a rifle that way - bringing in the "free hand" considerations from this.
For the people who don't understand the scattergun has an Attack interval 0.625 s. This is the amount of time it takes to recover after firing. After that it takes 0.7 s to reload (The first reload takes longer). So with no remaining ammo it takes 1.325 s to reload and fire a shot. The amount of time it takes to switch weapons is 0.67s but since a switch can be performed at any point it cancels the recovery of the shot. This means that in a position against a low health target in midrange you will be putting damage out with the pistol ~0.655s sooner than with the scattergun. With the base damage the first shot (which is always accurate) deals 15 hp. You still have time for 4 more shots in this window, although they will be affected by bullet spread. If they all hit (assuming you're in a midrange where you would want to be using scattergun) you could potentially be doing 75 hp of damage in the amount of time it would have taken to reload. Considering this is in a position where you have already used all your scattergun ammo your target will probably already be damaged. Switching to pistol can definitely make the difference between getting a pick on classes like medic or sniper. (This is assuming stock, the winger has higher damage upfront and BFB fires more shots.)
Really like the idea of the "extra hand" concept. Interestingly enough I often both play support and gravitate towards pistols. I used to buy nades and a pistol on buy rounds if I couldn't afford a rifle in CS. The newest COD just added a vest that replaces your primary weapon slot with another secondary weapon slot and gives you a bunch of free perks. I already think the pistols are kinda OP in the game and now they're getting a huge buff.
A good perk for Handguns would be: Fast Nades. The ability of taking out a Granade with your secondary hand, pulling the pin and throwing, WHILE aiming with your pistol, but the recoil is increased while you throw. That way the typical "I put my weapon away to toss a nade and the enemy pushes in that second" moment gets compensated.
It's kinda like siege shields. You get protection and a pistol. It is also balanced by having to expose your head to shoot. Also, you get the option to run in. Blitz Has the blind so he can get closer and shoot you without getting headshoted, and Montage can explain his shield for more support. And Fuze has Ak-12 so he can choose to be a Fragger or support.
@C0lon0 I hate it too, I wish Ubi didn't nerf everything, at this point it's becoming a bland room clearing sim. And on defense it's holding one angle to try to get a kill.
if you've played Titanfall 2, there's wall running that makes you feel really cool. If you had that only with the handgun, it could be a hard to hit, BANG BANG BANG! weapon. (I don't play FPS games much so sorry if this exist already)
To expend the ammo in your primary, pull out your pistol and finish them off, winning the firefight... The clutch feeling is one that stays with you. But when you take a pistol out and clean up the match? That's when you have a story. The pistol; simple yet effective.
Another thing that would be relevant in PvE games is concealability if you have a "social stealth" system. Something I find annoying in games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Starfield is that the inventory system allows you to somehow have long guns conveniently carried without raising suspicion. On the other hand, the Hitman games give pistols a clear role as the weapon you can easily holster and walk around with.
I mean this could be attributed to some games but both Adam Jensen and Your character in starfield have non nefarious reason to be carrying assault rifles, Adam lives in Detroit as a security guard, and your character in starfield lives in space.
@DorkN313 There are plenty of non nefarious reasons to be carrying an assault rifle, but what I really ment was the people in detroit are probably just used to military looking augmented men holding assault rifles.
PAYDAY 2 has similar system as well. You still can bring AR's, but modding for concealment would make most of them less viable than high damage pistols/SMG's in stealth.
It is also weak when you compare it to other primaries except maybe medic, a shotgun would be better for a close range class like him but it doesn’t suit him well Still better than pistols and smgs
Also fun fact, the original NFA intended to ban Handguns and banned SBRs as a way to avoid people shortening rifles into handguns. Lobbying efforts eliminated the handgun ban, but they kept the SBR ban, and so here we are
I like the way Half-Life balanced its pistol the most. The MP5 has a way higher fire rate but way less accuracy while the pistol is perfectly accurate. Makes it a great utility secondary.
Honestly, this doesn't likely seem like a chance to happen, but if Arch ever covered melee weapons, and how they have changed throughout games and their weird consistencies across games, that would be a really neat video.
@homeygfunkoffacherryfruitl4971 Interestingly, many older games the melee weapon was a case of "Strictly for starting enemies" to preserve ammo and once you get your fourth weapon, you pretend the weapon doesnt exist yet in a game called Turok Evolution, the melee weapon is never useless, as long as the enemy is on the ground, you can effectively do harm, infact I think it does a lot more damage than rockets. You may say "oh there maybe some enemies that are freaking dangerous to approach and yes, you are correct, that does not mean they are immune to the poison arrow, if the arrow isn't killing them, they are busy vomitting.
Hey arch could we get melees and armour next please (Maybe even healing)? Love your content and would love to see more of those meta discussions like this!
For healing and armour, Tarkov would be a pretty good example again because of its complex and versatile armour and healing system, looking forward for the video, doing a really good job :)@OfficialArch
Totally accurate battlegrounds (TABG) had a very nice per-hand handgun/melee/spell/grappling hook system, where you could even have 2 main slots with 2 guns each, AND a single pistol/melee slot, so if you wanted you could have 5 auto revolvers on you to swap between before reloading :D
@amazingnoo9935 Not removed, but the game is no longer supported, as in most times the servers are empty, you can still play it just fine with enough players i think
I prefer the regular revolver to the auto revolver because there is no fire rate cooldown, meaning you can empty the full mag in a quarter second if you could click fast enough. I've killed full teams with a revolver before.
Something I want to note about Ready or Not is that handguns are way smaller. This lets you identify targets faster, see if they have a knife or gun, your gun won't get blocked by walls as easily, etc. If you aim it canted and have a laser on it, it becomes a very viable alternative to the primaries.
yeah Darktide handles this well too. instead of putting the pistol at the bottom of the screen when ADS they hold it at a bit of an angle with one hand, takes up way less of the screen, you move faster when ADS and you sprint faster too. great for melee characters and the vision is important when getting attacked at all sides during a horde. I've seen so many people go down because they tunnel visioned with their rifle. Also you can pull your gun out much quicker when switching from melee which is great when theres a sudden ranged enemy and you can take them out quicker before they can shoot you.
what i find interesting is that, in ultrakill, the revolver maintains use and is one of the best weapons purely because of it's marksman variant, allowing you to throw a coin and shoot it to kill an enemy within sight, and this simple tool combos with tons of other weapons in the game and there are still 2 other variants you can use and an alt variant with slower fire rate but higher damage if you use the revolver more as a secondary
i really love ricochet alternate, able to wipe out mass lower-class enemies or deal quite a bit of damage to higher-tier ones (granted theres a ceiling)
the pistol/revolver is also just such a nice weapon in general. every weapon has some sort of gimmick that makes them usable in certain scenarios, but the pistol/revolver can be used at all times. its such a like, good general versatile weapon for any situation
Based on my recent experience in VR shooter, there is one extreme important factor that have not been mentioned: Length / size. When encounter in extreme close or narrow space, long guns can sometimes stuck in the wall (or forced to be held vertically like Tarkov) and unable to pre-aim. This factor can bring pistol as sometimes a great advantage in narrow environment, and could be discuss as a factor. Alao best quote of the day: "I have a very strict gun control policy: if there's a gun around, I want to be in control of it." - Arch, PISTOLS: Better Than Reloading
Just a small comment on the Tarkov recoil model, in case someone else hasn't already mentioned (and I'm sure you may already know if you are an avid fan), but the game has just had a huge update to certain mechanics, including the recoil one. Early thoughts are that it's incredible, although how that balances late game with 'meta' weapon builds is to be seen. But that's a digression. In short, pistols and SMGs seem to be 'realistically' balanced regarding recoil now.
I really like how insurgency sandstorm manages its weapon stats. Every weapon can kill you with one or two shots, usually depending on whether the bullet hit your upper or lower half, anything at chest height or higher is a confirmed kill 80% of the time (except for headshots of course, that's 100%). Armor is pretty much just dead weight and will only protect you once damage falloff comes into the equation, or if the caliber is small enough. Then again, it'd only take like an additional shot or two to take you down. Keeping things equally lethal makes it easier to give handguns a little more protagonism, you're still outmatched by even the shittiest rifle, but if you're a better shot than your opponent then your chances are not that bad, specially in CQB.
Armor helps a lot with protecting from explosives. But you're 100% right it's dead weight for bullet protection. At most, it'll let you last 1 or 2 bullets, assuming it's low calibre.
And another thing that helps insurgency (both OG and sandstorm) is that it's a generally urban focused tactical shooter, even if pistol is objectively worse on all aspects compared to a rifle or SMG, you mostly use it around corners in snap encounters, pre-aim and first to peek advantages are far more than enough to make them still come out on top.
Another thing I love about Sandstorm's pistols is that they are made more useful due to slow primary weapon reload speeds. In games with fast primary weapon reloads, there is rarely a reason to use your pistol unless you're totally out of primary ammo, but in Sandstorm it's critical to get good at smoothly switching to your pistol once you realize your main gun is dry. Also, Sandstorm has a system where your gun's barrel length affects whether or not it can be used when close to objects, and pistols are significantly less clumsy than rifles in CQB.
STALKER realistically puts this to practice as well. An AK-74 will kill a human regardless of body armor at close range, but at longer ranges, even simpler ballistic armor can keep you alive from 1-2 hits
12:55 fun fact: there is a game where they add this kind of customization. They even add the ability to duel wield heavier guns if your character is strong enough Madness: Project Nexus
I've never heard of this. Interesting ooohhhh, it's one of those kind of games with the silly character models. I can't for the life of me remember the first time I saw that style of character. Anyway I'll definitely pick it up on sale.
@Scroolewse the gameplay is extremely fun, especially in the combat arena mode with a ton of customization can be unlocked by playing the game multiple times
this reminds me of half life alyx where I mostly picked the pistol over any other gun, just because it was so fun. thank the director to give me so many pistol bullets because i played pistol so much
Normally, when you shoot a pistol with iron sights you don't only look through the sights, you have one eye through the sights and one eye able to see around. instead of just adding scopes you could make the pistol with irons semi-transparent with distinct ironsight.
Also, you can play around with the zero of your gun, so that your shots don't land exactly where you aim, but slightly above the iron sight, so you don't cover your target.
I don't think this actually resolves the issue though, pistols feel worse in games than in real life because games very rarely take into account the dreaded 3rd dimension. Guns end up so often being a flat overlay on your screen, you can get right up to a wall with your weapon still in your shoulder ready to fire, but in actuality with my weapon in my shoulder straight forward the closest I can get to the wall is however long the weapon is, if I want to hold tighter to that barrier I have to hold the weapon tighter to my body, something that in games seems rarer than not. In an enclosed space or going through a door I can't just be sideways with the weapon facing forward, I have to transition to a low or high ready, maybe even hold tight, to move sideways and even if I go straight in that might be better because the weapon will appear some distance in front of me alerting someone hiding to my presence before I'm aware of theirs.
Arch, we need more! I had a whole idea about making a game with all the balancing ideas in these videos, but I can't do that when all you've done is snipers, shotguns, and pistols.
He's basically covered assault rifles as the "weapon that every other weapon is balanced around" so really following the trend of the shotgun and sniper videos, just make one that's slightly better for close combat, say an AK-47 with a higher fire-rate but worse accuracy and one thats better for open, long-range situations like an M16. This is probably not realistic in the slightest, but neither is most of the stuff here
a realistic element that also fits the get out of jail free card type in the video would be the fact that black powder weapons produce a giant cloud of smoke when fired. The term 'fog of war' originally referred to a literal thick fog that would roll across battlefields when these things were in use, that's the whole reason for the brightly coloured uniforms is so you can see who's who
Pistol in Ready Or Not is actually pretty useful, because it is short :) In some tight space or doorways, your long gun is more likely to be blocked, stopping you from firing your gun. If you use a pistol, however, you can fire your gun freely in tight spaces, I usually use it while I am attacking some tight corner Well, it can be replaced by smg in this case :P
i love that the "using your secondary hand for something else thing" already exists in VR games like pavlov or contractors cause why wouldn't it, you could hold 2 LMGs even just gotta try and control the recoil
7:10 a slot that can only hold pistols/dual welding like in TABG because single-shot weapons (like muskets) in there are generally better than machine guns because the recoil on everything is insane
That was legitimately one of the best integrated sponsorships I've seen on RUclips, and I genuinely enjoyed it rather than skipping it to get on with the video.
Please keep up this way of doing sponsorships. Tying sponsorships into the content you are creating, and talking about and critiquing the sponsor, are a great way to make your audience feel respected, while also keeping the sponsor happy and getting paid for all the hard work you put into these videos. Keep it up, can't wait for the next upload!
@ChiyotheCappadocian Well, and this approach gets you a sponsor segment beside the "main" one that doesn't even get tagged for sponsor block because it's part of the content.
1:00 That's because in that game, Rainbow Six Siege, that operator's (Caveira) special ability is to be kind of a silent assassin and her pistol is made to have high damage closerange but also having a high damage dropoff so it aligns with other pistols for consistency. So close range her pistol does more damage but for far range I'd pick Rook with his MP5 and 2x scope.
There's gonna be a game that revolves ( pun intended ) around Arch's gun balancing videos, it's gonna be unique that you can shoot a pistol while reviving, a realistic shotgun mechanic and a sniper's unique charge mechanic and range balance.
I've recently been thinking of the sad truth that there are little bits and pieces of what would be the best game in the history of the world just stuck in obscurity never to be combined by the right developer. Imagine skyrim but the dragons use the nemesis system from Mordor. The nemesis system added to any game would increase its awesome ratio immediately. Including games like Barbie Dress Up and those fake RUclips ad roller games
@sweypheonix Sadly the nemesis system is currently copyrighted so unless someone gets permission to use it, we aren't seeing it anytime soon. I really hate the current copyright system right when it comes to things like these.
@netherwarrior6113 that's so true but is it not screaming out for someone to take it, change two things, and skirt the copy right? I hate it for valid copyright holders but this is same as when the concept of having a mini game during load screens was taken out in the 80s and we never saw a game with one again. Some concepts shouldn't be allowed to be copywritten because they are so broad they stifle innovation. It's similar to the idea that any smartphone copyright shouldn't block all other smartphones from being produced.
To be honest, I agreed with basically everything in this video, but I have to take a little bit of a stance when it comes to Ready or Not. In Reay or Not, the main use of the pistol is as a one-handed weapon to be used with a shield, which instantly makes them balanced, as shields are absurdly good. In addition, when peeking doors, you will often find yourself with a dilemma: do you push the door open after peeking it (which you might do to check for bombs), or do you open the door completely? In a few cases, I have found that it puts me in a much better situation to open the door by pushing it open with my body. And while primary weapons are undoubtedly better in terms of damage, fire rate, accuracy, etc., there is an problem in Ready or Not where your gun will become unusable when you are too close to a wall or door. Your character, instead of allowing the gun to clip through the surface, will instead aim it directly up. However, with a pistol, the range at which this occurs is essentially negligible. This allows you much more versatility in clearing rooms. Loved the video though, keep it up!
When you run out of ammo and juke the enemy by retreating and then immediately 180 with the pistol and get the kill is one of the best feelings in gaming
You could also add in a weight mechanic where the less and smaller gear you have, the lighter you are and faster that you are. Having less armor means that you’ll have less health and protection, but you are faster, have a ton more stamina and get hit less. While having more gear means more options, such as heavier armor means more health and protection with being able to use heavier weapons for effectively at the cost of moving fairly slowly. And an idea for next video, you could do a video about lethals, tacticals, medicine or gear. Since they are the smaller but very useful things that can help shape if you win or not. Find a small room that you’re not confident in? Use a flashbang or grenade. In a wide area with small areas to go? A smoke should be able to conceal you. Wounded? Use a medkit which will heal you but takes a while. Need a quick get up? Use morphine and adrenaline, but it doesn’t last very long and if you use too much you’ll start seeing things
I think you did not emphasize the barrel length in realistic games. One of the big benefits pistols have in close quarters they do not need to be lowered, plus height over bore when shooting near cover. I could also see additional movement options/speed for taking pistols. I will say good video and I hope you do more!
I have a suggestion for potentially solving the whole "pistol blocks your view" issue that I believe makes justifiable sense. Semi-transparency. In fact, it could apply to most weapons aside from heavies or high magnification scopes. So in most games you ADS by closing one eye, slowing down, and focusing down your scope. Makes sense to line up a target in a rifle or magnified scope, but for a pistol consistently held in a forward position, especially without a scope, its easy enough to move around and keep the gun in a sighted position while moving at less than a sprint. You wouldn't be running around the map with one eye closed, would you? Due to the offset nature of our binary vision, you technically have two fields of view from separate angles that combines to make our vision seem singular, but when using both eyes you can easily see *through* close-held objects. This is actually how professionals are trained to use firearms so that they aren't running around squinting through a scope that blocks 70% of their peripheral vision. In most FPS games, scopes lower the main body of the rifle out of the way already, so I don't think it's entirely necessary to apply transparency there, but for pistols I think giving the player full or even fuzzy vision through the gun would make a lot of sense and provide that little gameplay advantage to an otherwise underwhelming support item. This, combined with free-hand contextual actions/accessories, would be a great step towards making pistols feel more useful for certain situations.
while not trying to be a more realistic modern military shooter, Darktide makes it so they hold the pistols with one hand and aim it at a bit of an angle and it takes up way less screen space.
Hi Arch, In Ready or not , if you have a primary weapon, and your front is blocked by something, you can't aim/ posture it. there's a mechanism in place where if you have a long gun, it will take into account the space in front of you, making pistols very viable for CQB. especially in narrow corridors/ rooms.
He also didn't mention the very thing a free hand (which he mentioned in earlier segment funny enough) offers: Tactical Shield. In a well-coordinated team the utility of having someone take aggro while your teammates flank and neutralize suspects is invaluable, especially when going against HVTs like Brixley, Gerald, Voll (may he rot in hell)
12:46 I love that you brought up the idea of mixing and matching different guns when dual-wielding. Halo 2 did this back in 2004, and aside from Halo 3 and Halo 2 Anniversary, I can't think of any other shooter that allows this as an option. It was so much fun to try different combinations of weapons together to see what works really well and what doesn't. I really wish other games tried this out.
Just Cause 2 allows dual wielding with different weapons. I wish it’s sequels kept that feature, because it was really cool holding an SMG in one hand and a compact grenade launcher in the other.
@amazingnoo9935 I can't believe I forgot about Just Cause 2 when I made the original comment, but that game is another great example of the mechanic done well.
It was possible through cheating in Apex Legends, but that cheat has either been patched or fell out of favor because of how blatant it is. It would be cool as a legitimate mechanic though.
I am honestly shocked nobody here has brought up Hunt Showdown, a fantasy cowboy style fps with PvPvE gameplay. almost half the guns in Hunt are pistols, mostly revolvers, and they are almost all just as important as your primary weapon if not more so. some of them straight up ARE primary weapons! Honestly the way Hunt Showdown handles it's handguns could be an entire followup video to this in and of itself! Anyway, loved the video, looking forward to more like it in the future!
Came to comment this, really works with how the ammo stacking works, especially with stuff like the sparks pistol! The whole ammo thing is an entire different breakdown.
10:42 really love this mechanic in stalker,i usually have a pistol to use with a artifact detector,so that if i get attacked while artifact hunting i can use a weapon do defend myself
there was an open world zombie survival game i used to play with a cool inventory grid system. for the same inventory space as 1 rifle, you could carry a pistol, food, bandages, and a flashlight. of course, handguns were outclassed in combat by any other firearm, but they were still popular because you could have viable firepower in your pocket, while keeping your hands and back slot free for a fire axe or something. it was an interesting way to get more players to choose a pistol over long guns.
Can’t wait to watch this video, thanks for taking the time to bring quality content to us. Will edit after I watch for my reaction :) Edit: Incredible video with a lot of thought provoking ideas. I agree that pistols should be a slightly weaker version of primary weapons with worse ammo capacity, however I still want the choice of it being a primary with a free hand and an ability if I feel like it. My main gripe with pistols today isn’t even the balancing anymore so much as it is the lack of customization.
For Enlisted, I think you may have missed a few things about pistols Pistols aren't all built equal. The semi-autos like the C96 and the 1911 and the Hi-Power are blatantly better. More controllable, higher damage and rate of fire. I can't speak for the autos since I don't have any. At lower BRs where most infantry are armed with bayoneted bolt actions. You can use them very effectively in close quarters. And because it takes its own slot, you still have your regular weapons available to you. I regularly use semi-automatic pistols to give my sniper squads assault capability. They can clean house against a player and AI who only has a bolt action and well timed reloads combined with good use of cover can let you pick apart a whole squad. If you die, every soldier in your squad can carry a pistol, so you have more chances. It's fun to John Wick your way around buildings and houses with the 1911. You won't win a straight up fight with a submachine gun but that makes sense, that's thier niche. You can still clean house with pistols against rifle squads. Another niche I've found for Pistols is with Machinegunners. Machineguns in enlisted really slow you down when equipped, so I give my machinegunners Pistols I swap to whenever I need to quickly change positions. They give me some defensive capability while being able to run and move more freely than with the Machinegun. As an aside, you can also fire sub-machineguns from the hatches of tanks. Really useful for surprising sneaky AT players.
HUD as an offhand option is definitely a game designing idea. Especially if the player normally would have to swap to their HUD object if they have a 2 hand item equipped.
the two handed style that can freely managed with any "onehanded" weapon is very fun and can be balanced. A good example is "Totally accurate battle grounds" for it is really fun and often encouraged to use two pistols at once because of the lack of better dmg options as the drops are random. It is obv a joke game but still manages to represent the "what if" factor really well.
for the section about how a pistol only needs one hand i was thinking about a game that does that same thing, because its a vr game, on roblox (its called opposer vr)
Where are you man? I miss your videos, the editing, writting, it is so entertaining to me that a 1 hour video feels like 20 minutes, pls continue posting :c
I love Hunt: showdown because of this Yes there are some damage differences with the same caliber, but you can absolutely slaughter full servers with a revolver
i feel like the "interaction thing" you were talking about is something that is way more prevalent in VR games like Breachers and Zero Caliber. Zero Caliber also has the customization down for secondaries where i personally like an SMG as my primary, i carry a scoped revolver as a secondary. It might be an interesting video to see what VR does to the FPS genre.
How about Pavlov? I often played with revolver purely because it does rifle damage. My free hand was holding cocked grenades, the bomb, a knife, healing pills, or even grabbing the magazine of my enemy. And recoil control was unmatched compared to rifles, so I could play deathmatch with no problems at all. A knife in my off hand instantly won me any fight if we both turned a corner. The ability to carry 2 pistols was key to my reload management, and I could hold 2+2 if I included the ones in my hand (-1 since I needed to drop one to reload, balancing!). One more thing that pistols can do? Concealment. I played TTT and I can assure you that guessing who is fooling around and who is carrying the oneshot detective Desert Eagle made subterfuge possible. I literally held my hands up, reached for my waist, and got killed. We had a chuckle in deadchat about how I almost made it to my revolver.
Flare Gun should also blind for at least 2 seconds, so you can escape/switch weapon. I personally like a small shotgun as a sidearm and a medium range sniper as main. Great video as always :)
An awesome detail enabled by VR is that the "free-hand" mechanic is built in! Yet another of the details that (I hope) will eventually lead to VR shooters someday being an awesome, innovative way to experience the genre.
So, the subway surfers thing at around 14:55 is funny, but the graphs would be way easier to see horizontally than vertically. Just trying to give some constructive criticism.
💥Download Enlisted for FREE and get your bonus! ► Use my link - playen.link/arch #ad
Tarkov obviously had to update their recoil when I finished the video...
& sorry for the delay on the video. It got corrupted while rendering and I lost a bunch of footage
We accept the apology
@medicinalcheez same
I swear i tought this game wuold never be free as how cool this game seemed.
Oh wait since its free it will have its downsides...
Can't wait for a story vid!
@stoutishvoice4185progression is really really slow eversince they added the merge update its a good update but with alot of downsides
As a wise man once said
"Remember - switching to your pistol is always faster than reloading"
"using your knife is even faster than switching to your pistol"
"knoife the wortormelon"
@macromage I heard throwing your primary is even faster than switching to your knife
@medicinalcheez might as well just throw the bullets themselves, because "what is a bullet, but a high velocity knife"
eating a poptart is faster than reloading
@macromage I can feel Gaz's thick Bri'ish voice just from reading this haha. Not as thick as McMillan's Scottish accent...
SWAT4 had a damage system where if your arms get damaged your aim is affected, and often you end up switching to a pistol when your arm gets hit because you just can't aim with your primary.
Thats actually a really good idea
Fallout has a similar system where if you're arm gets crippled, your aim becomes terrible
It’s like that in Tarkov , your head stomach, arms, chest and legs have their own health bars
sick
SWAT 4 is the goat, that game is criminally underrated yet so good and realistic specially for its time
Laughed at the inclusion of a subway surfer cutaway but also unironically found myself watching it. Funny touch
I love visual gags like that
lol
i was so confused when i saw that i was like pls no its too distracting
I wasn't sure it was a joke or not, I actually blocked that part of the screen with my arm.
Heh I was wondering about that too
this guy posts 8 good, high quality videos, and disappears. crazy
Fearless incident
Reminds me of other youtubers with the same fate
he also posts on Historically his other channel
fr
He's busy with irl stuff
I love how Arch incorporated the sponsor of the video into the argument, rather than just an interruption to the video. Love your content.
Yeah I really liked that, this is probably the first sponsor segment that I really didn't mind/enjoyed
@legendaryblob8227one of the few sponsored segments I’ve ever watched and been actually engaged it
I’ve seen a couple of RUclipsrs do that in a variety of ways
Either interesting or straight up the funny type of intriguing
I really wish many RUclipsrs do the same cause the sponsor would be much more enjoyable
I wasn't watching the video, just listening at the time, and by the time I realized that it was the ad, he said thank you to the sponsor and continued on
This is where VR really shines through, trying to aim and move with a rifle is much more cumbersome and difficult than a pistol, especially in games like Pavlov I find myself favouring pistols over larger firearms like shotguns and rifles
You could simulate it in M&K games with a lot of bloom if you have to move your weapon very quickly and more than like, 45 degrees(or disconnect your aim point from where the gun is pointing), but I feel like a lot of people would complain. The only type of game I've seen that controls how quickly a heavy weapon can turn are in tank/mech combat, where the limitations of the turret drive speed basically stop large cannons and heavily armored turrets from spinning on a dime, while smaller tanks and their lighter guns can generally get around faster, and also spin their turret faster too.
@Appletank8 escape from tarkov has a mechanic called "ergonomics" in the game, basically a numeric value given to a gun which indicates how easy it is to handle. A gun with low ergonomics will sway in your hands more when aiming, it lags behind slightly when moving point of aim quickly, takes slightly longer to do things like reload or aim down sights etc. Pistols tend to have much higher ergonomic values than rifles or other large weapons, giving it a slight advantage in how quickly you can react to seeing someone and flick to their head. Guns can also be customized to improve their ergonomics and that does allow some rifles to have as high ergo as pistols tho so it's not a perfect system as it is right now.
you might wanna try Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades. because their gun selection is pretty awesome.
@justcallmenoah5743 this is also how Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead and Metal Gear Solid (3-V) handle the difference between larger and smaller guns; while Cataclysm represents an "aiming speed" in time units (being a turn based RPG rather than an FPS) it tends to make the somewhat weaker pistols a very good choice in a tight space - they're quiet, small, light, and you can draw and aim quickly when encountering an unexpected monster.
Metal Gear Solid actually reduces your aiming/turning speed with heavier weapons in 4 onward, and still does so in first person in MGS2 and 3; further, while you can still use your handgun while holding a human shield or carrying someone in MGS, you cannot use a rifle that way - bringing in the "free hand" considerations from this.
@accounterror5517 i gave it a whirl a while back it wasn't too keen, might give it another go now though
As a Scout main once said, "It is always better reloading your scattergun than using your pistol."
That scout main was bad.
Skill issue on their part
Not always, especially with the force a nature
My Pretty Boys Pocket Pistol disagrees
For the people who don't understand the scattergun has an Attack interval 0.625 s. This is the amount of time it takes to recover after firing. After that it takes 0.7 s to reload (The first reload takes longer). So with no remaining ammo it takes 1.325 s to reload and fire a shot. The amount of time it takes to switch weapons is 0.67s but since a switch can be performed at any point it cancels the recovery of the shot.
This means that in a position against a low health target in midrange you will be putting damage out with the pistol ~0.655s sooner than with the scattergun. With the base damage the first shot (which is always accurate) deals 15 hp. You still have time for 4 more shots in this window, although they will be affected by bullet spread. If they all hit (assuming you're in a midrange where you would want to be using scattergun) you could potentially be doing 75 hp of damage in the amount of time it would have taken to reload. Considering this is in a position where you have already used all your scattergun ammo your target will probably already be damaged. Switching to pistol can definitely make the difference between getting a pick on classes like medic or sniper.
(This is assuming stock, the winger has higher damage upfront and BFB fires more shots.)
Really like the idea of the "extra hand" concept. Interestingly enough I often both play support and gravitate towards pistols. I used to buy nades and a pistol on buy rounds if I couldn't afford a rifle in CS. The newest COD just added a vest that replaces your primary weapon slot with another secondary weapon slot and gives you a bunch of free perks. I already think the pistols are kinda OP in the game and now they're getting a huge buff.
A good perk for Handguns would be: Fast Nades.
The ability of taking out a Granade with your secondary hand, pulling the pin and throwing, WHILE aiming with your pistol, but the recoil is increased while you throw. That way the typical "I put my weapon away to toss a nade and the enemy pushes in that second" moment gets compensated.
It's kinda like siege shields. You get protection and a pistol. It is also balanced by having to expose your head to shoot. Also, you get the option to run in. Blitz Has the blind so he can get closer and shoot you without getting headshoted, and Montage can explain his shield for more support. And Fuze has Ak-12 so he can choose to be a Fragger or support.
@xyzzzzzzzzzzzp693siege just became a bullshit game, not anymore a Tom Clancy's game.
@C0lon0 I hate it too, I wish Ubi didn't nerf everything, at this point it's becoming a bland room clearing sim. And on defense it's holding one angle to try to get a kill.
if you've played Titanfall 2, there's wall running that makes you feel really cool. If you had that only with the handgun, it could be a hard to hit, BANG BANG BANG! weapon. (I don't play FPS games much so sorry if this exist already)
To expend the ammo in your primary, pull out your pistol and finish them off, winning the firefight...
The clutch feeling is one that stays with you.
But when you take a pistol out and clean up the match?
That's when you have a story.
The pistol; simple yet effective.
This sounds like one of Ahoy's gun analysis scripts
Yeah that's just the reason why my favorite golden eye gun is the dostvel.
Another thing that would be relevant in PvE games is concealability if you have a "social stealth" system. Something I find annoying in games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Starfield is that the inventory system allows you to somehow have long guns conveniently carried without raising suspicion. On the other hand, the Hitman games give pistols a clear role as the weapon you can easily holster and walk around with.
I mean this could be attributed to some games but both Adam Jensen and Your character in starfield have non nefarious reason to be carrying assault rifles, Adam lives in Detroit as a security guard, and your character in starfield lives in space.
@MilataB32 non-nefarious reason to carry an assault rifle is an oxymoron
@DorkN313 There are plenty of non nefarious reasons to be carrying an assault rifle, but what I really ment was the people in detroit are probably just used to military looking augmented men holding assault rifles.
PAYDAY 2 has similar system as well. You still can bring AR's, but modding for concealment would make most of them less viable than high damage pistols/SMG's in stealth.
calling starfield a game is a bit of a far fetch
Spy's default revolver is not weak at all, it packs quite the punch when you consider other classes' health numbers
It is also weak when you compare it to other primaries except maybe medic, a shotgun would be better for a close range class like him but it doesn’t suit him well
Still better than pistols and smgs
Its a good job most spys don't seem to know they have a gun
@CAMSLAYER13 Except gun spies. I think they might know they have a gun most of the time.
in many cases they can outright carry because of there reliable solid damage
i agree, they just dont use their revolver actively at all, have you seen spies retreat shooting at you? most of the time, they dont
3:18 thanks ATF, for making video games more complicated than they need to be
More like thank the NFA for Banning SBRs /shrug
Also fun fact, the original NFA intended to ban Handguns and banned SBRs as a way to avoid people shortening rifles into handguns. Lobbying efforts eliminated the handgun ban, but they kept the SBR ban, and so here we are
I like the way Half-Life balanced its pistol the most.
The MP5 has a way higher fire rate but way less accuracy while the pistol is perfectly accurate. Makes it a great utility secondary.
The glock also has more damage per round than the mp5, but less dps due to the rate of fire, which encourages switching between the two based on range
the mp5 is just a longer crowbar with a grenade launcher
....And then CS 1.6 made it more complicated when each caliber has its own damage and the guns has its own damage modifiers.
@johndexterzarate6663 both the glock 18 and mp5 use the same caliber fyi
Honestly, this doesn't likely seem like a chance to happen, but if Arch ever covered melee weapons, and how they have changed throughout games and their weird consistencies across games, that would be a really neat video.
i believe he replied to another comment saying a melee weapon video was on the way or something
If so I am so excited@zombieslayer1468
About to comment the same thing, glad someone talked about it first
We've gone from the days of useless melee weapons like the axe in Quake to melee literally being more powerful than a point blank gunshot.
@homeygfunkoffacherryfruitl4971 Interestingly, many older games the melee weapon was a case of "Strictly for starting enemies" to preserve ammo and once you get your fourth weapon, you pretend the weapon doesnt exist yet in a game called Turok Evolution, the melee weapon is never useless, as long as the enemy is on the ground, you can effectively do harm, infact I think it does a lot more damage than rockets.
You may say "oh there maybe some enemies that are freaking dangerous to approach and yes, you are correct, that does not mean they are immune to the poison arrow, if the arrow isn't killing them, they are busy vomitting.
Hey arch could we get melees and armour next please (Maybe even healing)? Love your content and would love to see more of those meta discussions like this!
Its planned!
@OfficialArch Hell yes! Thank you so much! Might I enquire as to wich of those are planned and in what order?
@papakamirneron2514 i don't think he well want to ruin the surprise
Finnaly, melees that actualy do damage and don't just exist to make you faster
For healing and armour, Tarkov would be a pretty good example again because of its complex and versatile armour and healing system, looking forward for the video, doing a really good job :)@OfficialArch
That was the smoothest sponsor ever i almost didnt notice
One that's fun to watch too. And doesn't seem top praising.
he literally tells you it's a sponsored part right after mentioning enlisted.
@Matcha_Biscuit No, it is only "written"
Love seeing an Arch video. His minimalistic approach to videos are always my favourite type of video. Keep doing what you’re doing, Arch!
ahoy did it best
same bro, i love his vid because of it
The damn subway surfers killed me 😭
I agree it gives more of an distinction compared to other youtubers
@leomuller2841 Sure, but Ahoy uploads once a solar eclipse.
Totally accurate battlegrounds (TABG) had a very nice per-hand handgun/melee/spell/grappling hook system, where you could even have 2 main slots with 2 guns each, AND a single pistol/melee slot, so if you wanted you could have 5 auto revolvers on you to swap between before reloading :D
Tabg the goat
Was it removed? How come you’re speaking in the past tense?
@amazingnoo9935 Not removed, but the game is no longer supported, as in most times the servers are empty, you can still play it just fine with enough players i think
I prefer the regular revolver to the auto revolver because there is no fire rate cooldown, meaning you can empty the full mag in a quarter second if you could click fast enough. I've killed full teams with a revolver before.
5 tasers.
Something I want to note about Ready or Not is that handguns are way smaller. This lets you identify targets faster, see if they have a knife or gun, your gun won't get blocked by walls as easily, etc. If you aim it canted and have a laser on it, it becomes a very viable alternative to the primaries.
yeah Darktide handles this well too. instead of putting the pistol at the bottom of the screen when ADS they hold it at a bit of an angle with one hand, takes up way less of the screen, you move faster when ADS and you sprint faster too. great for melee characters and the vision is important when getting attacked at all sides during a horde. I've seen so many people go down because they tunnel visioned with their rifle. Also you can pull your gun out much quicker when switching from melee which is great when theres a sudden ranged enemy and you can take them out quicker before they can shoot you.
20:17 we put five fucking tons of gunpowder and an armorpiercing bullet in our ammo, especially the pistols
what i find interesting is that, in ultrakill, the revolver maintains use and is one of the best weapons purely because of it's marksman variant, allowing you to throw a coin and shoot it to kill an enemy within sight, and this simple tool combos with tons of other weapons in the game and there are still 2 other variants you can use and an alt variant with slower fire rate but higher damage if you use the revolver more as a secondary
*shooting a coin with a railgun*
i really love ricochet alternate, able to wipe out mass lower-class enemies or deal quite a bit of damage to higher-tier ones (granted theres a ceiling)
Not even necessarily in sight. The coin tracks anything *it* sees, and it has 360 degree view.
the pistol/revolver is also just such a nice weapon in general. every weapon has some sort of gimmick that makes them usable in certain scenarios, but the pistol/revolver can be used at all times. its such a like, good general versatile weapon for any situation
@chillyconmorBlast resistance? Nah no need to approach with a shotgun, you have a revolver!
Range? Revolver while approaching
Based on my recent experience in VR shooter, there is one extreme important factor that have not been mentioned: Length / size.
When encounter in extreme close or narrow space, long guns can sometimes stuck in the wall (or forced to be held vertically like Tarkov) and unable to pre-aim.
This factor can bring pistol as sometimes a great advantage in narrow environment, and could be discuss as a factor.
Alao best quote of the day:
"I have a very strict gun control policy: if there's a gun around, I want to be in control of it." - Arch, PISTOLS: Better Than Reloading
not just moving around obstacles, but also a long gun is easier for somebody to keep pointed away from themself in hand to hand combat.
Non-VR games are already simulating this by the way, like Ready or Not
Just a small comment on the Tarkov recoil model, in case someone else hasn't already mentioned (and I'm sure you may already know if you are an avid fan), but the game has just had a huge update to certain mechanics, including the recoil one. Early thoughts are that it's incredible, although how that balances late game with 'meta' weapon builds is to be seen. But that's a digression.
In short, pistols and SMGs seem to be 'realistically' balanced regarding recoil now.
yh, I was shocked when he said terrible recoil changes at first, it's leagues above the old recoil now
5:50 *Jontohill screaming in the corner*
14:45
No way was the subway surfers game play in the video, our attention spans are still here
LMAO RIGHT??
Fr fr
I really like how insurgency sandstorm manages its weapon stats.
Every weapon can kill you with one or two shots, usually depending on whether the bullet hit your upper or lower half, anything at chest height or higher is a confirmed kill 80% of the time (except for headshots of course, that's 100%).
Armor is pretty much just dead weight and will only protect you once damage falloff comes into the equation, or if the caliber is small enough. Then again, it'd only take like an additional shot or two to take you down. Keeping things equally lethal makes it easier to give handguns a little more protagonism, you're still outmatched by even the shittiest rifle, but if you're a better shot than your opponent then your chances are not that bad, specially in CQB.
Armor helps a lot with protecting from explosives. But you're 100% right it's dead weight for bullet protection. At most, it'll let you last 1 or 2 bullets, assuming it's low calibre.
And another thing that helps insurgency (both OG and sandstorm) is that it's a generally urban focused tactical shooter, even if pistol is objectively worse on all aspects compared to a rifle or SMG, you mostly use it around corners in snap encounters, pre-aim and first to peek advantages are far more than enough to make them still come out on top.
Another thing I love about Sandstorm's pistols is that they are made more useful due to slow primary weapon reload speeds. In games with fast primary weapon reloads, there is rarely a reason to use your pistol unless you're totally out of primary ammo, but in Sandstorm it's critical to get good at smoothly switching to your pistol once you realize your main gun is dry. Also, Sandstorm has a system where your gun's barrel length affects whether or not it can be used when close to objects, and pistols are significantly less clumsy than rifles in CQB.
STALKER realistically puts this to practice as well. An AK-74 will kill a human regardless of body armor at close range, but at longer ranges, even simpler ballistic armor can keep you alive from 1-2 hits
@JohnPeacekeeper I think thats only for npcs, you can tank tf out anything in stalker especially with good armor and artifacts for ballistics
12:55 fun fact: there is a game where they add this kind of customization. They even add the ability to duel wield heavier guns if your character is strong enough
Madness: Project Nexus
bro i literally thought of that as well but i wasn’t expecting to find someone that played that too lmaoo
I've never heard of this. Interesting
ooohhhh, it's one of those kind of games with the silly character models. I can't for the life of me remember the first time I saw that style of character. Anyway I'll definitely pick it up on sale.
@Scroolewse It's from Madness Combat.
Borderlands 2 Salvador
@Scroolewse the gameplay is extremely fun, especially in the combat arena mode with a ton of customization can be unlocked by playing the game multiple times
Dude actually dropped the best three episodes I've ever seen in a RUclips series, and just disappears, actual Swedish legend.
14:32 this video’s got everything including Subway Surfers gameplay for our short attention spans
Fr fr
speak for yourself
If I would have a short attention span, I would not watch this video...
The clip only removed my attention!
@carbonx0718 true! but it was really funny!
This is exactly why in vr I always lean toward pistols
this reminds me of half life alyx where I mostly picked the pistol over any other gun, just because it was so fun. thank the director to give me so many pistol bullets because i played pistol so much
Normally, when you shoot a pistol with iron sights you don't only look through the sights, you have one eye through the sights and one eye able to see around. instead of just adding scopes you could make the pistol with irons semi-transparent with distinct ironsight.
Also, you can play around with the zero of your gun, so that your shots don't land exactly where you aim, but slightly above the iron sight, so you don't cover your target.
I don't think this actually resolves the issue though, pistols feel worse in games than in real life because games very rarely take into account the dreaded 3rd dimension. Guns end up so often being a flat overlay on your screen, you can get right up to a wall with your weapon still in your shoulder ready to fire, but in actuality with my weapon in my shoulder straight forward the closest I can get to the wall is however long the weapon is, if I want to hold tighter to that barrier I have to hold the weapon tighter to my body, something that in games seems rarer than not. In an enclosed space or going through a door I can't just be sideways with the weapon facing forward, I have to transition to a low or high ready, maybe even hold tight, to move sideways and even if I go straight in that might be better because the weapon will appear some distance in front of me alerting someone hiding to my presence before I'm aware of theirs.
That's actually a brilliant and very realistic depiction of how it looks in real life.
Arch, we need more! I had a whole idea about making a game with all the balancing ideas in these videos, but I can't do that when all you've done is snipers, shotguns, and pistols.
He's basically covered assault rifles as the "weapon that every other weapon is balanced around" so really following the trend of the shotgun and sniper videos, just make one that's slightly better for close combat, say an AK-47 with a higher fire-rate but worse accuracy and one thats better for open, long-range situations like an M16.
This is probably not realistic in the slightest, but neither is most of the stuff here
@LeeLikesToDraw The AK-47 was intended for accuracy when firing a single shot so maybe that could be in the game too
I would love if the flintlock also had a hand club option, so you shoot once and then have a melee weapon, like in real life.
a realistic element that also fits the get out of jail free card type in the video would be the fact that black powder weapons produce a giant cloud of smoke when fired. The term 'fog of war' originally referred to a literal thick fog that would roll across battlefields when these things were in use, that's the whole reason for the brightly coloured uniforms is so you can see who's who
Its to outdated for modern setting!
13:01 Load one with armour piercing and another with explosive rounds and you've got yourself a combo deadlier than any rifle could achieve
🤯
12:01
You can hear the regret and shame before he said it, that being said. AMONGUS
3:04 “our future oppressors” 😭
Pistol in Ready Or Not is actually pretty useful, because it is short :)
In some tight space or doorways, your long gun is more likely to be blocked, stopping you from firing your gun.
If you use a pistol, however, you can fire your gun freely in tight spaces, I usually use it while I am attacking some tight corner
Well, it can be replaced by smg in this case :P
i love that the "using your secondary hand for something else thing" already exists in VR games like pavlov or contractors cause why wouldn't it, you could hold 2 LMGs even just gotta try and control the recoil
Whats with the random subway surfer clip around 14:30 lmao
I was also wondering that😭
to make sure we pay attention since ppl now-a-days have an attention span worse than a goldfish
No way 💀
7:10 a slot that can only hold pistols/dual welding like in TABG because single-shot weapons (like muskets) in there are generally better than machine guns because the recoil on everything is insane
14:40 did you really just attack my short attention span like that?
That was legitimately one of the best integrated sponsorships I've seen on RUclips, and I genuinely enjoyed it rather than skipping it to get on with the video.
Please keep up this way of doing sponsorships. Tying sponsorships into the content you are creating, and talking about and critiquing the sponsor, are a great way to make your audience feel respected, while also keeping the sponsor happy and getting paid for all the hard work you put into these videos. Keep it up, can't wait for the next upload!
I just use sponsorblock lmao
@ChiyotheCappadocian Well, and this approach gets you a sponsor segment beside the "main" one that doesn't even get tagged for sponsor block because it's part of the content.
@Vivi-yw1eu skipped it anyways lol, should actually dm the dev of the plugin about this
Please upload Arch 🙏
HES ALIVE HES ALIVE HES ALIVE
1:00
That's because in that game, Rainbow Six Siege, that operator's (Caveira) special ability is to be kind of a silent assassin and her pistol is made to have high damage closerange but also having a high damage dropoff so it aligns with other pistols for consistency. So close range her pistol does more damage but for far range I'd pick Rook with his MP5 and 2x scope.
There's gonna be a game that revolves ( pun intended ) around Arch's gun balancing videos, it's gonna be unique that you can shoot a pistol while reviving, a realistic shotgun mechanic and a sniper's unique charge mechanic and range balance.
I've recently been thinking of the sad truth that there are little bits and pieces of what would be the best game in the history of the world just stuck in obscurity never to be combined by the right developer. Imagine skyrim but the dragons use the nemesis system from Mordor. The nemesis system added to any game would increase its awesome ratio immediately. Including games like Barbie Dress Up and those fake RUclips ad roller games
@sweypheonix Sadly the nemesis system is currently copyrighted so unless someone gets permission to use it, we aren't seeing it anytime soon. I really hate the current copyright system right when it comes to things like these.
@netherwarrior6113 that's so true but is it not screaming out for someone to take it, change two things, and skirt the copy right? I hate it for valid copyright holders but this is same as when the concept of having a mini game during load screens was taken out in the 80s and we never saw a game with one again. Some concepts shouldn't be allowed to be copywritten because they are so broad they stifle innovation. It's similar to the idea that any smartphone copyright shouldn't block all other smartphones from being produced.
I mean for charge tf2 has sniper that has to charge
Left 4 Dead gave players a pistol while incapacitated in 2008.
To be honest, I agreed with basically everything in this video, but I have to take a little bit of a stance when it comes to Ready or Not. In Reay or Not, the main use of the pistol is as a one-handed weapon to be used with a shield, which instantly makes them balanced, as shields are absurdly good. In addition, when peeking doors, you will often find yourself with a dilemma: do you push the door open after peeking it (which you might do to check for bombs), or do you open the door completely? In a few cases, I have found that it puts me in a much better situation to open the door by pushing it open with my body. And while primary weapons are undoubtedly better in terms of damage, fire rate, accuracy, etc., there is an problem in Ready or Not where your gun will become unusable when you are too close to a wall or door. Your character, instead of allowing the gun to clip through the surface, will instead aim it directly up. However, with a pistol, the range at which this occurs is essentially negligible. This allows you much more versatility in clearing rooms.
Loved the video though, keep it up!
14:44 Jokes on you Arch i would always choose a pistol because no one expects to be deleted by a pistol
When you run out of ammo and juke the enemy by retreating and then immediately 180 with the pistol and get the kill is one of the best feelings in gaming
You could also add in a weight mechanic where the less and smaller gear you have, the lighter you are and faster that you are. Having less armor means that you’ll have less health and protection, but you are faster, have a ton more stamina and get hit less. While having more gear means more options, such as heavier armor means more health and protection with being able to use heavier weapons for effectively at the cost of moving fairly slowly. And an idea for next video, you could do a video about lethals, tacticals, medicine or gear. Since they are the smaller but very useful things that can help shape if you win or not. Find a small room that you’re not confident in? Use a flashbang or grenade. In a wide area with small areas to go? A smoke should be able to conceal you. Wounded? Use a medkit which will heal you but takes a while. Need a quick get up? Use morphine and adrenaline, but it doesn’t last very long and if you use too much you’ll start seeing things
My guy you should play Ready or Not.
Battlebit already has that
Loadout points yo
already in insurgency sandstorm
I think you did not emphasize the barrel length in realistic games. One of the big benefits pistols have in close quarters they do not need to be lowered, plus height over bore when shooting near cover. I could also see additional movement options/speed for taking pistols. I will say good video and I hope you do more!
0:30 Rambo Six Siege?
I have a suggestion for potentially solving the whole "pistol blocks your view" issue that I believe makes justifiable sense. Semi-transparency. In fact, it could apply to most weapons aside from heavies or high magnification scopes. So in most games you ADS by closing one eye, slowing down, and focusing down your scope. Makes sense to line up a target in a rifle or magnified scope, but for a pistol consistently held in a forward position, especially without a scope, its easy enough to move around and keep the gun in a sighted position while moving at less than a sprint. You wouldn't be running around the map with one eye closed, would you? Due to the offset nature of our binary vision, you technically have two fields of view from separate angles that combines to make our vision seem singular, but when using both eyes you can easily see *through* close-held objects. This is actually how professionals are trained to use firearms so that they aren't running around squinting through a scope that blocks 70% of their peripheral vision. In most FPS games, scopes lower the main body of the rifle out of the way already, so I don't think it's entirely necessary to apply transparency there, but for pistols I think giving the player full or even fuzzy vision through the gun would make a lot of sense and provide that little gameplay advantage to an otherwise underwhelming support item. This, combined with free-hand contextual actions/accessories, would be a great step towards making pistols feel more useful for certain situations.
Thats actually quite the genius idea
I abuse the see through close objects thing in laser tage
Tag
@zuon_0182 Thanks, but really it's just mirroring real life, so if anything it'd be considered as realism rather than innovation.
while not trying to be a more realistic modern military shooter, Darktide makes it so they hold the pistols with one hand and aim it at a bit of an angle and it takes up way less screen space.
Hi Arch, In Ready or not , if you have a primary weapon, and your front is blocked by something, you can't aim/ posture it. there's a mechanism in place where if you have a long gun, it will take into account the space in front of you, making pistols very viable for CQB. especially in narrow corridors/ rooms.
Does CQB stand for Close Quarter Battle?
@ShiddyKongyes
He also didn't mention the very thing a free hand (which he mentioned in earlier segment funny enough) offers: Tactical Shield. In a well-coordinated team the utility of having someone take aggro while your teammates flank and neutralize suspects is invaluable, especially when going against HVTs like Brixley, Gerald, Voll (may he rot in hell)
12:46 I love that you brought up the idea of mixing and matching different guns when dual-wielding. Halo 2 did this back in 2004, and aside from Halo 3 and Halo 2 Anniversary, I can't think of any other shooter that allows this as an option. It was so much fun to try different combinations of weapons together to see what works really well and what doesn't. I really wish other games tried this out.
Wolfenstein new Colossus allows both hands to have completely different guns. So I'd run the shotgun and the AR for that wombo combo
Just Cause 2 allows dual wielding with different weapons. I wish it’s sequels kept that feature, because it was really cool holding an SMG in one hand and a compact grenade launcher in the other.
@amazingnoo9935 I can't believe I forgot about Just Cause 2 when I made the original comment, but that game is another great example of the mechanic done well.
Ive pretty much only seen this in vr games, which is a shame.
It was possible through cheating in Apex Legends, but that cheat has either been patched or fell out of favor because of how blatant it is. It would be cool as a legitimate mechanic though.
3:13 the left one is a short barrelled rifle, the bottom one is an assault rifle, *and the right one in the eyes of the ATF is a felony*
I find it funny that I don’t play a single fps game and I still enjoy your videos. They’re just really well crafted!
I am honestly shocked nobody here has brought up Hunt Showdown, a fantasy cowboy style fps with PvPvE gameplay.
almost half the guns in Hunt are pistols, mostly revolvers, and they are almost all just as important as your primary weapon if not more so. some of them straight up ARE primary weapons!
Honestly the way Hunt Showdown handles it's handguns could be an entire followup video to this in and of itself!
Anyway, loved the video, looking forward to more like it in the future!
its one of my fav game, because you can win with every gun, if all are op none are :)
Came to comment this, really works with how the ammo stacking works, especially with stuff like the sparks pistol! The whole ammo thing is an entire different breakdown.
love how hes genuinely honest about his sponsor, thats great tbh
MY MAN UPLOAD PLEASE
10:42 really love this mechanic in stalker,i usually have a pistol to use with a artifact detector,so that if i get attacked while artifact hunting i can use a weapon do defend myself
there was an open world zombie survival game i used to play with a cool inventory grid system. for the same inventory space as 1 rifle, you could carry a pistol, food, bandages, and a flashlight. of course, handguns were outclassed in combat by any other firearm, but they were still popular because you could have viable firepower in your pocket, while keeping your hands and back slot free for a fire axe or something. it was an interesting way to get more players to choose a pistol over long guns.
dayz?
@lurky393unturned?
You just *KNOW* it’s a good day when Arch uploads. Props.
I miss this guy love his videos
Can’t wait to watch this video, thanks for taking the time to bring quality content to us. Will edit after I watch for my reaction :)
Edit: Incredible video with a lot of thought provoking ideas. I agree that pistols should be a slightly weaker version of primary weapons with worse ammo capacity, however I still want the choice of it being a primary with a free hand and an ability if I feel like it. My main gripe with pistols today isn’t even the balancing anymore so much as it is the lack of customization.
I hope you like it!
@OfficialArchits really good
For Enlisted, I think you may have missed a few things about pistols
Pistols aren't all built equal. The semi-autos like the C96 and the 1911 and the Hi-Power are blatantly better. More controllable, higher damage and rate of fire. I can't speak for the autos since I don't have any.
At lower BRs where most infantry are armed with bayoneted bolt actions. You can use them very effectively in close quarters. And because it takes its own slot, you still have your regular weapons available to you.
I regularly use semi-automatic pistols to give my sniper squads assault capability. They can clean house against a player and AI who only has a bolt action and well timed reloads combined with good use of cover can let you pick apart a whole squad. If you die, every soldier in your squad can carry a pistol, so you have more chances. It's fun to John Wick your way around buildings and houses with the 1911.
You won't win a straight up fight with a submachine gun but that makes sense, that's thier niche. You can still clean house with pistols against rifle squads.
Another niche I've found for Pistols is with Machinegunners. Machineguns in enlisted really slow you down when equipped, so I give my machinegunners Pistols I swap to whenever I need to quickly change positions. They give me some defensive capability while being able to run and move more freely than with the Machinegun.
As an aside, you can also fire sub-machineguns from the hatches of tanks. Really useful for surprising sneaky AT players.
A video on balancing guns in VR would be pretty sweet
I would pay a lot of money if you made a game with all the balances you’ve made in this series
the subway surfer at 14:20 was funny
This guy doesn't make RUclips videos he's making youtube productions, great channel, deserves more love.
HUD as an offhand option is definitely a game designing idea. Especially if the player normally would have to swap to their HUD object if they have a 2 hand item equipped.
he has a new channel gang, "Historically" hasn't uploaded there for 4 months tho.
the two handed style that can freely managed with any "onehanded" weapon is very fun and can be balanced. A good example is "Totally accurate battle grounds" for it is really fun and often encouraged to use two pistols at once because of the lack of better dmg options as the drops are random. It is obv a joke game but still manages to represent the "what if" factor really well.
The amazing video quality combined with the simplistic style and references to media creates a perfect video. Keep up the good work!
u came in the middle of nowhere, but then just made amazing content like what? like seriously keep it up dude!
for the section about how a pistol only needs one hand i was thinking about a game that does that same thing, because its a vr game, on roblox (its called opposer vr)
Where are you man? I miss your videos, the editing, writting, it is so entertaining to me that a 1 hour video feels like 20 minutes, pls continue posting :c
He's here: www.youtube.com/@HeyHistorically
When u gonna come back man i love your videos so much high quality and in depth video pls dont disappear like my dad
It's crazy that it's been almost a year since this guy has posted. Because it is currently 1-2-2025 6:34pm and this video was posted on Jan 3 2024
This dude rly made 8 rly good videos and then disappeared. Fair enough
I love Hunt: showdown because of this
Yes there are some damage differences with the same caliber, but you can absolutely slaughter full servers with a revolver
i feel like the "interaction thing" you were talking about is something that is way more prevalent in VR games like Breachers and Zero Caliber. Zero Caliber also has the customization down for secondaries where i personally like an SMG as my primary, i carry a scoped revolver as a secondary. It might be an interesting video to see what VR does to the FPS genre.
How about Pavlov? I often played with revolver purely because it does rifle damage. My free hand was holding cocked grenades, the bomb, a knife, healing pills, or even grabbing the magazine of my enemy. And recoil control was unmatched compared to rifles, so I could play deathmatch with no problems at all. A knife in my off hand instantly won me any fight if we both turned a corner. The ability to carry 2 pistols was key to my reload management, and I could hold 2+2 if I included the ones in my hand (-1 since I needed to drop one to reload, balancing!).
One more thing that pistols can do? Concealment. I played TTT and I can assure you that guessing who is fooling around and who is carrying the oneshot detective Desert Eagle made subterfuge possible. I literally held my hands up, reached for my waist, and got killed. We had a chuckle in deadchat about how I almost made it to my revolver.
You think I am gonna read this long ass paragraph?
11:51 💀
Bro please come back😢
Flare Gun should also blind for at least 2 seconds, so you can escape/switch weapon.
I personally like a small shotgun as a sidearm and a medium range sniper as main.
Great video as always :)
8:44 could’ve picked any other alternative angles to aim then the 2nd one
I knew I wasn’t the only one who sounded the alarms
_aim for head :)?_
1:30 truly the smoothest transition I've seen in a long while. Beautiful.
WAKE UP
Still waiting for that next video...
34:32 I love reloading in a battle, nothing like slamming a long silver bullet into a well greased chamber
Were are you My guy ?
Dude dropped 8 goated videos and left
his using his other channel historically
An awesome detail enabled by VR is that the "free-hand" mechanic is built in! Yet another of the details that (I hope) will eventually lead to VR shooters someday being an awesome, innovative way to experience the genre.
12:50 good luck making reload animations for that.
Where did he go? Hope everything is alright :)
Can bro PLEASE make a game???
Bro I really like your vids please make more 😢
17:24 and you know what else is massive
So, the subway surfers thing at around 14:55 is funny, but the graphs would be way easier to see horizontally than vertically.
Just trying to give some constructive criticism.